The Steel Sisters: Looking for Columbia
by pennames19
Summary: Robin Steel, age 22, is a fighter and younger sister to famed fighter Columbia Steel who went missing five years ago. Now her sister makes an appearance out of the blue and it's a wild chase for answers. Where did she go? Why did she come back? Based off of the RWBY universe.
1. A Bird in the Hand

Let it be said that Robin Steel absolutely hated her sister, Columbia. Whether it was because of the fact that nearly everyone else loved her older sister or the fact that Columbia had disappeared five years ago and left Robin to fend for herself, she couldn't say. Abandonment does leave an impressionable mark on a 17 year old. May be that's why, as the crowd roared her name, she felt a small twinge of pride, finally she wasn't being—

"Give it up for the little sister of the legendary Columbia Steel!"

Too late, she spoke too soon. The unseen announcer had already said what she had feared. The idea that the her opponent was going to be fighting a younger version of The Great ColumbiaTM had been planted in the audience's mind as they roared even louder. Robin stood in her corner of the arena clipping her helmet and armor on, her weapon laying on the floor next to her glinting in the stage lights that illuminated the arena.

It wasn't anything fancy, the arena, just a small little box that could contain two fighters or a fighter and a medium-sized animal. Nothing like the students over at Beacon had for their Vytal festival, no Robin could only dream of fighting in an arena like that. Her battles were saved for underground where she fought for faunus eyes only, after all they were the only ones who would really accept her fighting skills. Humans and faunus were separated by one thing only, their features. Faunus possessed shared characteristics with that of animals, whether it be cat ears, tusks, tails, you name it. The feature that had made the Steel sisters so recognizable were their shared pig snouts replacing a normal human nose. Robin had also made out with a pair of sizable canines that jutted out from her lower lip, hence the mask.

After affixing her steel kneepads and shin-guards she was ready and lofted her weapon up onto her shoulder. Lovingly Robin ran her thumb across the handle of the brushed steel mace she had named Migrare. Made all by herself with money she had saved up from odd jobs around the city of Vale. Her best stint was working for a Dust store until it was robbed by the White Fang. For all the good they claimed to do for faunus they sure seemed determined to give faunus a bad name.

Swinging the mace by her hip she looked around the crowd, she couldn't see them too well saving for a few spectators in the front on account of the lights that made the floor of the arena glow a bright white. Giving a salute to the crowd she began her waltz around the ring waiting for her opponent to be thrust into the ring.

"And now, her challenger… Titus Obsidian!"

A tall wiry man stepped into the arena dressed in black from head to toe, his eyes as pitch as the night of a new moon. Both opponents made their way to the center of the ring, as was customary before each fight. Robin examined her opponent, making careful mental notes on his stance and armor. He wore lightweight clothing and walked with a tall posture, the man dwarfed Robin in comparison. Obviously he would be focusing on quick attacks and did not anticipate to get hit. With a small smile Robin grasped the man's forearm as the referee called for the match to begin. Both opponents headed to their corners and prepped.

Robin took a breath before squatting into her starting position, her weapon hoisted close to her chest with the silver globe of the mace hanging just in front of her face. A smirk was hidden by her helmet as she saw Titus begin to swing a small blade on the end of a thick rope. This guy was in her element, she was the home team.

"AND FIGHT!"

With a yell Robin immediately ran forward towards her opponent, her mace aimed for the man's arms. Injure the arms and the crowd will still have a show and she would still have a win. The man easily anticipated her aim and launched his blade towards her face. In response, Robin dropped to her knees and slid underneath the loose blade and under the man's legs. Hooking Titus's leg as she went by he hit the floor with a thud. Immediately she switched directions and attempted to pin him down before she was thrown off , landing back on her side of the ring. Quickly she recovered noticing that the rope had hardened into a staff with the same blade at the end.

With smile she twisted the bottom of her mace and the silver globe expanded, letting loose a string of iron chains. Twisting it back the globe shrank back to normal size with new spikes jutting out of it. Placing the handle in her left hand she began to swing the now flail like weapon, increasing the radius of the circle as she walked closer to her opponent. The ball grazed the floor sparking as the spikes dug into the floor. She always gave the audience the same show each time and every time she heard the same vicious roar from the crowd as she advanced on her victim.

Suddenly he was gone. Blinking in surprise her even swing of the flail faltered for a split second. Her smile dropped and her eyebrows furrowed in concentration. The guy was probably using his semblance which probably was some sort of invisibility or cloaking or whatever. She saw a silver flicker out of the corner of her eye and a sudden burst of pain bloomed from her waist.

Reacting quickly she swung the flail in the general direction of the strike and stepped back into a defensive position. She drew in a sharp breath as she felt the cut deepen ever so slightly. Without even looking down she knew that her signature blue top was tinged with a deep maroon, she really needed to invest in more armor.

"Come on out and play..." Robin called out, hoping that she could at least draw a response out of the guy. "...Come on Titus, would this be more fun if it was face to face?"

She let the radius of her circle grow wider, hoping it would catch on something attached to an invisible man. Looking at the ground she saw the metal floor of the arena flicker for a moment. Bingo, they guy could make himself invisible but he couldn't make himself intangible, thus leaving a shadow.

"You can't keep this up for long..." she trailed off again keeping an eye on the shadow. It stilled and she knew he was preparing for an attack. Then she saw the same glimmer, the blade of his weapon aimed for her back. Robin kicked her leg up and dodged the attack while pinning the pesky blade to the floor. Titus flickered back into existence for a moment and she saw the launching of a second roped knife. Where was he getting these?

Leaning back, she dodged the second easily and launched her flail at him aiming square for his chest. Smiling as she felt the dull thud of the metal against his chest. Letting go of the first knife, Titus flew back hitting the cage surrounding the arena. Dancing around the chain of her flail, Robin wound it around her arms are back while keeping in time with the momentum.

As the ball swung around her she tried to bloc the majority of Titus's attacks as he dragged himself back up to his feet. She felt a few slices to her arms and legs that she missed blacking, but now her adrenaline was pumping and the cuts felt barely anymore than stings. Spinning on her feet with the grace of a season ballroom dancer she unwound all the chains from her body and began retracting them. Soon there was no more than a foot of chain left and distance left between her and Titus.

He thrust both knives out in a last ditch effort only to have them tangled up in Robin's foot of chain and yanked out of his hands and tossed across the arena. Retracting the last of her chain she aimed at the man's legs to knock him down once more. Titus dodged with a bloody smile as he managed to flip himself over Robin, using the wall as support.

Making a dash towards his discarded weapons Robin lazily pointed the smooth globe of her mace at him before pressing a button on the hilt to launch it at him. The spiked ball hit him in the calves and with a quick swing from Robin it wrapped itself around his ankles and one last yank from Robin was all it took to bring Titus down.

The next few minutes were always a blur, but Robin knew the next few events by heart. The alarm would sound for the fighters to stop fighting and a winner would be declared. She would get her prize money for the night and be invited backstage to clean her wounds and meet her adoring fans, which usually consisted of this one faunus boy Coop Bronze. Then she would limp her way home, a small one studio apartment in the bad part of Vale, and sleep off her wounds until the next night where it would start all over again.

Only tonight was different, as she was ushered back stage she saw Coop as usual, hard to miss him on account of his antlers. Taking off her helmet she waved at him while combing the other hand through her inky black hair.

"R-Robs! They saw her! She's here!"

Her smile faltering at the sight of her best friend's distress she stopped walking for a moment to look at him, copper hair disheveled and bottle green eyes wide with excitement.

"Who are you talking about Coop? Who's here?" Robin questioned grasping his shoulders hoping to calm him down.

"Your sister, Columbia, she was here tonight."


	2. Those Who Fail to Learn from History

"Columbia was here?!" Robin exclaimed, her mind going a million miles a minutes.

"Where is she? Who saw her?" she asked grabbing at Coop's shoulders as though trying to shake an answer out of him.

"The antlered boy could barely form a sentence until he shoved Robin off of him. She still had a million more questions about Columbia and her appearance.

"Coop, you better tell me everything."

Robin dragged him into the prep room and practically threw him onto the bench.

"Start talking."

"Jeez, you know generally when people are friends they don't toss each other around and -."

Seeing the cold look on Robin's face he could tell she wasn't in the mood.

"I was hanging outside the arena when someone pushed by me, long ponytail and tall, wearing blue." He gestured at Robin's signature cobalt blue top."Like your kinda blue."

Coop paused trying to remember what happened, "Then there were a few people chasing after her. Th-they were all dressed like White Fang members."

Robin blinked in surprise, the White Fang? The most notorious group of rogue faunus known to Remnant? And Columbia had been with them?

"Are you sure it was her?" Robin asked sitting down across from Coop.

"They started asking people things about the Steel girl, which way she went and where they thought she was going. Everyone thought they were talking about you, but I know it was her."

Robin's lip had stretched into a thin line, if this was true then that meant her sister was alive. Her mind whirled off again, to everything that had when Columbia had left. Why did she leave and now, more importantly, why did she come back? After all this time, why did she come back?

A long silence weighed heavy between the two faunus. Robin didn't notice that Coop had moved next to her until he spoke again, "Robs." A dumb nickname that he had given her when they first met, "Robs, are you okay?"

"She angrily wiped away the tears and responded.

"I'm fine."She said before standing up and pulling herself out of Coop's grasp.

"Robs-"

"I said, 'I'm fine!'" she yelled yanking her helmet off the bench and heading to the back room.

"Robin! Come on!"

"Leave me alone, Coop! I have shit to do, I'll see you tomorrow." She picked Migrare off the floor and stormed out of the prep room. The fighters-on-deck, who had seen the scene parted the way for her like the Red Sea.

She skipped her usual routine of changing back into street clothes before leaving the arena to distance herself from the place. Immediately she regretted it as the icy cold breeze of winter stung against her legs. Her breath came out in icy puffs, illuminated by the streetlights. With her arms wrapped around her chest she began the trek back to her apartment. Robin flinched as one of her fingers twitched to a cut in her shirt and its pair on her body.

She swore, usually she bandaged her injuries back at the arena but she needed to get out off there. she had been there. Columbia, the name almost sounded like a curse in her mouth. Certainly didn't match the girl who, before she had left, was the posterchild for a big sister. Not to mention an actual posterchild for this advertisement for some brand of sunscreen. Then she had been one of the top students at Signal and began competing.

Robin wasn't sure about the details, she hadn't been at the forefront of attention. She didn't blame them. Honestly, as they were both hunters, she would have done the same. As a kid, it was amazing, a celebrity as her sister. That is, it was until she got to Signal.

Every teacher, every student asked about her sister and commented on how much she wasn't like Columbia. Surprise, idiots, I'm not my sister despite my immense physical similarities. Beyond their hair and their noses (of course), she couldn't see why.

At this point , Robin had made her way back to her apartment in the outskirts of Vale. Waving her communicator in front of the building's door and the familiar click of the lock sounded allowing her access. Quietly she walked up the stairs until she reached her door.

The comfort of her bed was welcome as she tried to warm up, her body aching from the walk back and the cuts all over her body. Her helmet and mace laid at the foot of her bed along with a few pieces of armor. Sitting up in the bed she heaved herself over to the small bathroom next to the bedroom.

A fluorescent light flickered on over the dirtied mirror/medicine cabinet. Robin unlatched the top part of her skirt, leather panels made to look like a gladiator skirt, and unzipped the dark blue combat skirt. Leaving a small pair of black compression shorts and her three quarter sleeve blue top. Which was a dark maroon where her cuts stuck to the shirt.

Wincing, Robin removed the top revealing her sports bra. She looked at her battered reflection with a sigh, a few cuts were scattered across her arms and sides and one even had found its place on her cheek. Taking out the rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball she began to clean her wounds, a ritual that was well-rehearsed.

Maybe she did look like her sister, only differences lied in their eyes and body. The Steel sisters both had long black hair and both had the faunus features that they inherited from their parents. Robin had warm chocolate brown eyes that always seemed to offer a shoulder to lean on. Either that or they were cold and dark as pitch with a look that would pierce your soul. Columbia, however, had inherited their mother's steel grey eyes, always cold as a tundra and lived up to their family's name. She was also far taller and much more muscular than Robin who, as she grown, had adopted a more gangly height with a thinner, scrawnier look. Her sister had a heart shaped face and she had been blessed with what one could only describe as an angular oval.

Other than that, they were two peas in a pods, Robin thought sarcastically. She slung her hair over her shoulder in order to properly clean another cut on her shoulder. Grimacing at herself in the mirror she wondered what had made her sister come back, after all these years of being so completely gone.

When Columbia disappeared, it wasn't unlike any other runaway case. Well, except for the fact that a small-time local celebrity had somehow managed to disappear without a trace, baffling the authorities and shocking the populace. The populace who cared about a missing faunus, to most it was just another minority name on a paper. Robin remembered countless nights searching for Columbia with their parents, her hand freezing as she hung up the posters.

The first few years were the hardest, her parents constantly arguing and then crying in a relentless cycle. They disappeared for months at a time, on another search party or performing their duties as hunters. They left Robin to board at Signal Academy and learn how to be a huntress, though fighting for the greater good didn't exactly appeal to Robin. What did appeal to her were the fights, the combat. Also it seemed to be the only thing she was good at. As the fifth year passed of Columbia's disappearance, her parent's joined the list of missing family members. The story was that they went on a hunting trip and went missing in action.

Thus ended Robin's stay at Signal and began her fighting career. She gave up on the search for Columbia and began to focus on herself, and for the first she was the center of her own life. After a few months of mourning her parents she began to find new ways to get money. At first she stole, a section of her life that she wasn't proud of. She stole food and the bare necessities of survival while working at some fast food joint that she no longer remembered the name of. That is, until a disgruntled shopkeeper's son tracked her down and tried to make her return the stolen goods.

That was when she first met Cupric Bronze, better known as Coop. Robin, obviously, did not have the money or the goods to reimburse the shop which led to her working for both the dust shop and the fast food joint for a few months until Coop took her to a tournament fight. She remembered her first experience like it was yesterday, the roar of the crowds and rush of adrenaline in her veins. It had reminded her of the sanctioned fights back at the school but much more violent. There were no rules except for not to kill the other opponents. It was her calling.

Placing the now bloodied cotton ball on the edge of the sink she looked in the mirror. Robin saw a tired, bruised face staring back at her. A now yellowed, black-eye marked her cheek from a fight two weeks ago which was now mirrored by the cut on her cheek from this night's fight. She knew without looking that her back was a constellation of scratches and scars. A few bruises punctuated her arms and thin white scars lined her body, such was the price going into her first match against one of the elites as her first match.

Robin had been headstrong, to say the least, to think that as an out of practice student could take one of the strongest fighters on the circuit. Coop had warned her, as he oversaw many of the fights and fought in a choice few. Robin hadn't understood what the big deal was until she had been up against her, Indigo Violaceous, a monster of a woman who used two hammers a long as Robin's forearm. Thankfully, Indigo took it easy on her by letting Robin give up the match and in turn the winnings.

Finally, Robin listened to Coop and trained with him for the next few months until she could hold her own and then she began fighting and had been fighting ever since, her scars were a testament to that. She wore them like badges even if others didn't see them like that. It showed how far she had come from overshadowed by an obnoxiously talented older sister. Though that didn't stop people from remarking on how much she looked like the missing Steel sister, especially those that had been regulars on the circuit.

And after all that, she was back. Robin knew it would be all about Columbia again, she couldn't let that happen. Besides, maybe Coop had been mistaken, it had happened before. There was still so much she didn't know about her and so much that she didn't want to know about her.

Leaving her clothes in the bathroom she shut the lights off so that the only source of illumination came from the lights of the city. Collapsing on her bed she welcomed the cool sheets against her bruised and sore muscles. She laid there for a moment taking deep breaths and trying to find sleep. For the first time since her parents had left she couldn't. Robin remained staring at an empty ceiling wondering how much easier it would be just to forget.

Across the city, in a dark alleyway a midnight meeting was taking place.

"I will not recruit my little sister, she doesn't need this." a tall figure said tersely as she paced down the asphalt pathway.

"I'm afraid that's not your choice, it's her's." a syrupy voice replied from the shadows. "It's the boss's orders as well, offer the position to top fighters. It's worked before, I mean look at you."

The tall figure stopped her pacing, the streetlight flickered above her like a faulty spotlight. A man stepped into the yellow light, he had a black bowler hat and hair like fire.

"Indigo Violaceous, top fighter now leader of her own branch of the White Fang. Skyler Storm, criminal extraordinaire who now works for the White Fang. And you,once famed underground fighter and now best undercover operative for the White Fang. D'you see where I'm going with this? Your little underground animal friends make the best personnel for my little operation here."

"We are not animals." Columbia seethed looking down on Torchwick who was only a few inches smaller than her.

"Yeah, well your nose seems to say otherwise. If you can't do it, someone else will."

"You told me to recruit the top fighter, not my sister!"

"And you agreed to a contract that says the White Fang owns you! Do your job." Torchwick finished with a disgusted look as he walked back into the White Fang hideout. Columbia was left alone under the flickering streetlight.

Columbia tilted her head back, a cool drizzle had started and a mist gave the lights of the city an unearthly glow. She brushed her bangs out of her face and opened her steel grey eyes to the sky.

"Get it together, Steel. It's time to pay your sister a visit." she muttered.

Five years and she knew this wouldn't be easy. She had had her own plans before her sister got involved. This was about to become far more complicated than anticipated.


End file.
